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The first day of the ICC Board meeting in Dubai has concluded with unanimous support for a set of nine key principles relating to the future structure, governance and financial models of the ICC.

Following the leaking of a draft copy of a position paper put together by Cricket Australia (CA), the England & Wales Cricket Board (ECB) and Board for Control of Cricket in India (BCCI), there had been fears among the cricketing community that those boards would be set to effectively run the game.

Those fears would appear to have been allayed although the three boards will all sit on a new five-strong Executive Committee as well as a similar Financial & Commercial Affairs Committee.

WHAT IS THE ICC BOARD?

The ICC Board comprises the chairman or president from each of the 10 Full Members plus three elected Associate Member representatives.

The ICC President chairs ICC Board meetings with the ICC Chief Executive and ICC Vice-President also in attendance.

The board meets around four times a year to discuss proposals put forward by other committees such as the Chief Executives' Committee and implement policies.

"Several months ago I encouraged BCCI, CA and ECB to enter into a constructive dialogue together to help resolve some of the key commercial and governance issues facing the game," ICC President Alan Isaac explained.

"These leading cricket nations have worked tirelessly to produce a document which provided the basis for the past few weeks of extremely constructive discussions.

"It is obviously very disappointing that a draft position paper from these Members was leaked as this prompted a debate that ignored the ongoing negotiations between all Members and led to unwarranted criticism of many of those involved in the process.

"The principles agreed today provide clear evidence that through the course of further discussions over the coming weeks we can be increasingly confident in achieving consensus."

The nine principles agreed at the board meeting are as follows:

Opportunity for all Members to play all formats of cricket on merit, with participation based on meritocracy; no immunity to any country, and no change to membership status.

Creation of a Test Cricket Fund paid equally on an annual basis to all Full Members (except the Board of Control for Cricket in India, Cricket Australia and the England and Wales Cricket Board) to encourage and support Test match cricket.

A larger percentage from the increasing Associate Members’ surplus will be distributed to the higher performing non-Full Members.

Mutually agreed bi-lateral FTP Agreements which will be legally binding and bankable and will run for the same period as the ICC commercial rights cycle (2015-2023).

Recognition of the need for strong leadership of the ICC, involving leading Members, which will involve BCCI taking a central leadership responsibility.

A need to recognise the varying contribution of Full Members to the value of ICC events through the payment of ‘contribution costs’.

The establishment of an Executive Committee (ExCo) and Financial & Commercial Affairs Committee (F&CA) to provide leadership at an operational level, with five members, including BCCI, CA and ECB representatives. Anybody from within the Board can be elected to Chair the Board and anybody from within ExCo and F&CA can be elected to Chair those Committees. With the ICC undergoing a transitional period that includes a new governance structure and media rights cycle, this leadership will be provided for two years from June 2014 by: a BCCI representative to Chair the ICC Board, a CA representative to Chair the ExCo and an ECB representative to Chair the F&CA.

A new company will be incorporated to tender future commercial rights for ICC events. There will be three major ICC events in each four-year cycle, including the ICC Champions Trophy which will replace the ICC World Test Championship.

ICC will utilise a more efficient operating model for all ICC events, with a simplified accounting model across ICC income and expenditure to help better manage ICC administrative and event costs.

Isaac added: "This is an important time for world cricket and it is extremely encouraging that the ICC Board has unanimously supported a set of far-reaching principles that will underpin the long-term prosperity of the global game.

"These principles emphasise the primacy of Test cricket and that for the first time in cricket's history participation will be based entirely on meritocracy, giving everyone powerful incentives to play better cricket and develop better cricketers.

"The principles agreed today provide clear evidence that through the course of further discussions over the coming weeks we can be increasingly confident in achieving consensus."

Alan Isaac, ICC President

"There is more work to be done by the Members in developing their schedules of bilateral cricket while at the ICC we need to work through the detail of the manner in which these principles will be implemented.

"Extensive work will now be undertaken in advance of a follow-up Board meeting next month."

ICC Chief Executive David Richardson also paid tribute to the work the board members have put in.

"An enormous amount of effort has gone into developing a comprehensive set of proposals that include input from all Members," he said.

"The Board has held some very constructive, inclusive, wide-ranging and far-reaching discussions and I am looking forward to bringing to fruition some of the principles that have been proposed and accepted in relation to the cricketing structures of the global game."